Snow in April

Ok, this is no joke... it is April 19 and it snowed 4 inches last night in Mill Creek/Lynnwood Washington. We are right in the middle of the convergence zone where the weather is usually worse, meaning we get weird and worse weather than anyone else around here. If you went 5 miles south, no snow... or five miles north, the same. I took this picture at 7:30 this morning. To top this off, last Saturday it was 85 degrees and the most beautiful day of the year. Boy am I ever glad that we have global warming?

Family and home

A little comment if I can and since it is our blog, I will... a house is a building we live in for a little while, sometimes even years. But a home is something that families build together that transcends a building and will last an eternity. Each day, each of us, living in a house, build a home that provides comfort, warmth, happiness, and love far greater than any house man can build could ever provide. If a family, couple, will work hard together nothing should or can tear down a home as that is where a family is. The most important structure in our society today is the family and it is under attack each and every day by forces, much of it our media, trying to rip us apart. Please keep your family in tact as your family will be the greatest achievement or work you will ever do. Nothing compares to the happiness we have received than from our family. 

Jane and I count as our greatest blessing... our family. Nothing brings us more joy than to be with our children, parents, siblings, and cousins. If we had a fortune, we would spend it to gather everyone together to have some time to talk and share life. Thank you all for being a part of our family and our home. We love you all deeply.

Fun in California

We just came back from being with Ken and Cindi in Fresno, CA. We had such a great time seeing them. Mom and Dad, grandma and grandpa Hamm, also were there as they are on their way home to Lynnwood from their winter abode in sunny and hot Arizona. Well, we golfed and laughed and played games and just had a great time. One of the BIG highlights and benefits of the trip is that Paula, Ken's daughter, her awesome husband Michael, and their sons Gavin (16) and Mackay came down from Modesto to see us all on Sunday. It was so great to see them again as it had been since Tim Hamm's wedding since we had seen them. Gavin and Mackay gave us all lessons on how to shoot pool and we were able to visit throughout the afternoon. the hard part for Jane and I was to say good bye and see them pull away to go home. Cindi's daughter Nichole was also down for a couple of days of fun and we were able to catch-up with her family as well. If there is one thing we love to do it is to visit with and see our family, wherever and whenever we can. Thank you Ken and Cindi for being so gracious to us and allowing us to be able to invade your beautiful house/home. We had a great time.

The BIG Surprise or Clueless

I don't know how to thank my children and Jane for the greatest birthday present I could have received... a visit from all of them. I was totally unaware of this whole event and all of the various people that knew all about it and kept it totally in the dark... and when I mean dark, I mean outer-darkness, the abyss, clueless-in-Richland kind of dark.

So here is how it unfolded from my perspective... or when the deception began so long ago. So I get a call from Robb in February saying, wow dad, is there a weekend coming up where you could come over and help me with the fence? Sure, wow, we don't have seminary on a Friday so we could come over on Thursday and help you out. So we plan away... he doesn't have work on that Friday either... perfect. 

A week before we are to go Rebecca brings back a bunch of Jeff and Mary's stuff that we had just hauled down to their house a couple of weeks before under the huge lie that Mary's sister was going to take it to Jeff and Mary's (I just asked Jane if that was a lie and found out it was part of the hoax as Chris and Rebecca were going to haul it in the truck so I wouldn't be suspicious. But Ruby's chicken-pops foiled that as Alice and Chris had to stay home to await the possible arrival of the chicken-pops for Alice. As I said, I was clueless. About 5 days before we are to go Jordan and I were talking and I told him that we were going down to visit Robb and Heather, do some work on the fence, golf and maybe go on a bike ride. Next day he emails me and says, wow, I would really like to get out of town and get some family time and have some fun. So he "arranges" to have his bosses give him the time off. Again, clueless on my part.

So Thursday arrives, we pick up Jordan and his bike and head out for a sunny weekend in Richland to fix the fence and do some other stuff.

We arrive and have a fun evening with Robb, Heather and their cute little children, see their blog you will see what I mean, and the children are put to bed. A while later, I see a streak up the stairs. I think this is Hailey up from bed again and don't think anything of it. Suddenly there is a squeal of joy in my ear and a cute little Sarah jumping on me and saying "Surprise!" and then in walks Jeff, Mary and Nathan (he was just running in circles with a big smile on his face) and then Nathan came over and gave me a big hug. After a while, they got them to bed as it was pretty late and they had been in the car for 5 hours coming from Mt. Home, ID. 

Still clueless... a while later, still sitting like a lump in the chair talking to everyone... another squeal of surprise and joy jumps in my lap and gives me a hug by the name of Ruby, disappearing chicken-pops and all. (She was in the safe zone). Alice and Chris had to stay home as Alice was potentially in incubation for the chickenpox so they had to stay home. Bummer, it would had added some more fun.

Now I was finally clueing in that I had been taken to the cleaners, duped and misled by my wife and children and this was going to be the best birthday yet. We talked of how it would have been nice if Braden and Amanda could be here with us, but we were going to be able to see them in a couple of weeks when we went down for General Conference. Well, Friday we were able to relax, go to Lowe's and get the fencing material and begin work on the fence by setting the posts. After we set the posts, Jordan

and I went on a 18 mile bike ride in the area which was a lot of fun. I was most grateful for one thing... where we rode there were few hills to negotiate as whenever we came to them Jordan's bike seemed to go a lot faster than mine with a lot less effort. That night the games began and with Jeff and Mary in the lead, not that several games had not already been played in the afternoon. One of the big hits is that Robb and Heather have a Wii and we played that a lot as well as Settlers of Catan and several other board games. For some reason, Jane just wanted to stay up really late and it was 1:30 in the morning and they just kept wanting me to stay up later and later. At that hour I went to bed as I wanted to be ready to golf the next morning.

Saturday morning finally arrives and I get dressed, not showered or cleaned-up mind you, and 

come down to find surprise #3... Braden and Amanda had driven all of the way from Provo, UT to be there with us and I was totally blown away by it. 

We MEN, and I mean men, went golfing soon thereafter and from these pictures,

you will see we had a lot more fun that we do skills. Just to give you an example; the first hole took us a solid 35 minutes to play!! We hit every part of the course except the fairway and could have cared less... we were together and having a great time. Scores... who kept score that would have ruined a perfect day of golf.

We went to lunch that afternoon to Red Robin and had a little birthday bash. Jordan had to get back to Seattle and took the Grayhound back as it was more relaxing and about the same cost as driving. As the night drew on it was decided that Heather needed an early birthday present and Rebecca gathered Heather up and out they went to by Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) for the Wii. Heather was good but the rest of us needed some serious practice. 

In the parking lot of Red Robin, I gave Jane a hug and thanked her for this great blessing of bringing our children together for me and I broke down with joy at being so blessed to have children who love each other and their parents. (This proves that real men do cry). Although the opportunity to get together was for my 55th birthday that was only an excuse for them, us, to all spend a little time laughing and talking together for a few days. Greater joy can not be experienced than as a parent to sit back and watch your children interact, hug, laugh, and play together. That same joy is also seen as our grandchildren gather with them and play until there is no tomorrow. Sunday came way too soon as we all had to depart and go our separate ways. To Jane, all of my children and their spouses, and my grandchildren... thank you for the best birthday ever.

AHHH, the Ellipsis

Now that I have all of your attention I have to write about my favorite thing in writing... yes, the ellipsis, which I just used and is the "..." earlier in the sentence. This is the most fantastic punctuation in the whole wide world. It is commonly used as a pause in thought, which at my age can happen at any moment... kind of like a cataplexy. Many people like to use commas or semi colons to do similar things, but they don't have the pazzaz of the ellipsis. Let me show you. It can be used to totally leave someone hanging and just end the sentence. Here is a cool example... See what I mean, I just left you hanging there waiting for me to give you the examples and I didn't and you aren't even offended by it. Here is another one... see wasn't that cool too? I have noticed that Rebecca has used this excellent tool of the english language to kind of do a "ta-da" type of thing which is another of its many uses. Like this, "My favorite thing in the whole wide world is... Creamies!" Well the favorite thing in the whole world is a stretch, but I do love Creamies and it made a great point and I didn't even have to type "ta-da". So now I have given you one of the finer presentations on the ellipsis you will ever see and probably more than you will ever want to know... but next time you are writing, give it a try! You will love it!! (I do have to say that Jane read this blog and did not necessarily approve of it prior to its publication.)

Little given, little expected

Well, now that I have posted my last blog and I only got one response, and I had to ask him to look at it, I can see that where "little is given, little is expected." So now that I have lulled you all to sleep so Jane and I can relax knowing that when we post a Pulitzer Prize winning blog full of pictures and fun things, no one will read it anyway... so what's the difference. So we will continue to blog in our old manner (never to seldom) and reduce the timely burden of checking our blog on a daily basis. Kaitlin, you will now have time for all of your homework!! Oh, and we know we were tagged, didn't know what that meant but now know, and will get to that in due time... due meaning whenever we feel like it because we are approaching our mid 50's and can dictate our time as we feel like it. Ahhh, it is great to have arrived at this blissful stage of life.

Too close for comfort

This "old couple" story was sent to me by a friend and I thought how way too close to home this is in the Hamm household... and no one knows more than Jane.

Here is the joke/story: (slightly edited in blue)

While on a road trip, an elderly (we could say even young or middle aged) couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant and resumed their trip. When leaving, the elderly (might I add very beautiful) woman unknowingly left her glasses on the table and she didn't miss them until they had been driving about twenty minutes. By then, to add to the aggravation, they had to travel quite a distance before they could find a place to turn around -- in order to return to the restaurant to retrieve her glasses. All the way back, the husband became the classic grouchy (misunderstood) old man. He fussed and complained and scolded his wife relentlessly during the entire return drive. The more he chided her -- the more agitated he became. He just wouldn't let up. To her relief, they finally arrived at the restaurant. As the woman got out of the car and hurried inside to retrieve her glasses, the old geezer yelled (maybe he really asked politely) to her."While you're in there, (Sweetie Pie) you might as well get my hat and the credit card!"

Now to defend myself; why must we be so critical and pointing out all of the faults of this poor man. Plus, from my point of view this story really exaggerates the entire situation way beyond reality. However, Jane, for some reason, will not say there is any exaggeration and in fact will probably say the story must have been previously edited by me in the first place to make it so "mild".

However, once again to my defense, this story must be a gross fabrication in the first place and could not be written by Jane or about me as my children well know that I would never have turned around and gone back in the first place let alone stopped to eat while I am driving on a trip. Unfortunately, that is more truth than I want to admit to, and I now apologize to my beautiful, understanding wife and children for all of the times I have been so set on the destination, usually McCall, that I wouldn't turn around even one mile from home to get something forgotten. Once again to my defense, we got there 10 minutes sooner, even if it was 2:30 in the morning!!